Opportunities in NASCAR spring up for minorities

After several failed attempts, NASCAR is trying again to bring more ethnic diversity to auto racing. This time, former NFL star Reggie White is lending a hand.

Two new programs will use the stock car sanctioning body's weekly late-model series to help minority drivers and crewmen find a place in the sport.

Access Marketing and Communications, in a partnership with NASCAR, will begin a training program in 2004 called "Drive for Diversity" to find rides for four drivers and up to 12 crewmen in the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series.

In the other program, Reggie White, with help from Joe Gibbs Racing, has formed a team that will race one minority driver in a Friday night series and another in a Saturday night series at tracks in North and South Carolina.

"We're out selling this the same as if we were a competitive team," said Daryl Stewart, general manager of Access, a public relations company. "NASCAR doesn't write the checks. All this is going to be sponsored with corporate money."

The newly formed Reggie White Motorsports with Joe Gibbs Racing has primary sponsors signed for both of its cars for 2004, although the team is still looking for associate sponsors.

Steve de Souza, vice president for Busch operations at Joe Gibbs Racing, is overseeing the new program. He said White, and Joe Gibbs and his son, J.D., are committed to making the program work and will make up any shortfall in the budget for next season.

And they will be working with Access on the project.

"That is the group that's going to be promoting and utilizing this as a template," de Souza said.

NASCAR has grown in popularity over the past 10 years. It has a $2.6 billion TV contract that has helped the stock car sport reach millions more people and will become even more mainstream next season when Nextel replaces Winston as the sponsor of its top series.

"Diversity has become a very visible and important issue in our sport," NASCAR spokesman Terrence Burns said. "The time is right for a very serious program that will be part of the foundation of the sport in the future."

In its search for new markets, the Southern-born sport wants to shed the last vestiges of its Good Ol' Boy image and reach out to blacks, Hispanics and other minorities who can buy tickets, watch races on TV or use its sponsors' products.

The key to attracting such new markets may well be finding a new star that appeals to them, like Tiger Woods in golf.

There is only one black team owner, Sam Belnavis, and only a handful of minority crewman in NASCAR's top series.

The new programs come at a time another one is ending in a sport that has had trouble finding funding for such initiatives. Dodge announced that its diversity program will not return next year, meaning that Dodge driver Bill Lester, who is black, has no sponsor for his truck team.

The Dodge program was responsible for placing Lester and several black crew members.

Wendell Scott is the only black driver to win at NASCAR's highest level, in 1963, but his career did not pave the way for other minorities.

The weekly late-model series will offer new opportunities.

Founded in 1982, the less costly series features 75 tracks in the United States and more than 8,000 drivers.

"Primarily you drive at one or two tracks, you drive a Friday night and Saturday night," Stewart said.

"You get your friends, who are your mechanic or your pit crew and a local car wash or local restaurant is your sponsor."

That can still cost up to $150,000 a year, once you own your own equipment, he said, and that's just the start.

"Once you jump from the weekly series and get into the Busch or the Craftsman Truck Series, it's a quantum leap in financial commitment," Stewart said.

Stewart said Access will get resumes from drivers in the next week or two, pick the top candidates and test them on tracks before making final selections.

Some crew members will be recruited from traditionally black schools, like North Carolina A&T, which already has a training program. Stewart said Access is also asking established NASCAR teams to provide mentors to coach and advise the selected drivers and the crewmen.

White's team has already started looking for drivers.

"We have had well over 250 applicants since the word hit the street," de Souza said. "As you can imagine, it's a variety of individuals. ... We've had a couple that have had speeding tickets and they think that qualifies them.

"It's more or less a scholarship opportunity, where we feel we can bring somebody in and get him started. Then Reggie, hopefully, would like to grow the program, and if the driver's talented enough, we'll be able to move him to the next level, whether it be trucks or Busch."

The White-Gibbs team will pair its drivers with veteran crews. (White was unavailable for comment on the program.)

"I think that for the first go-around here, we're going to support the program with experienced people," de Souza said. "Once we get going with that, we'll probably expand it into bringing in new people and starting training them.

"Our mission is to try to make the driver as successful as possible as quick as possible."